The concept of stirring pop corn while it is cooking is fairly old in the art as evidenced by the following patents Nos:
912,136 Landry PA0 1,304,508 Petro PA0 1,617,643 Kriete PA0 1,620,765 Jackson PA0 1,642,531 Barnard PA0 1,646,858 Grossenbacher PA0 2,034,190 Platt PA0 2,150,888 Barnard PA0 2,441,941 Shafter PA0 2,505,966 Humphrey PA0 2,561,203 Joffe PA0 2,570,126 Hobbs
These specific structures, however, can perhaps be best categorized by noting that the structure intrinsic with each of these references necessitates that the cooking appliance with it's lid is compatible only for pop corn cooking and does not lend itself to the convenient cooking of conventional foods as in conventional cookware.
Specifically noteworthy is the Humphrey U.S. Pat. No. 2,505,966, in which the stirring attachment is shown to be comprised of components which are capable of disassembly, but does not provide integrally and simultaneously a mechanism for removing the stirring wand from the lid, and further, the lid cannot serve as the container to hold the cooked pop corn. Therefore an additional bowl or receptacle is necessary.
Similarly, the patent to Jackson, U.S. Pat. No. 1,620,765 shows a lid latching mechanism coincidentally similar with that of the instant application, but the lid structure and stirring mechanism does not lend itself to utilization as the receptacle for pop corn that has been cooked. In addition, however, the lid of this structure must be formed from a material capable of standing the high heat of cooking and therefore does not seem to be competitive with the apparatus according to the instant application either in cost production, flexibility, or elegance.
It is to be noted that the remaining patents of which undersigned is aware do not remedy any of the deficiencies noted specifically for the above two discussed patents, but rather can be characterized in their degree of specialization for solely cooking pop corn.